Real-Puss Molting Center
SEPTEMBER is excited to present ‘Real-Puss Molting Center,’ a solo exhibition with Odessa Straub, opening Saturday, July 23, 5-7pm. Following her solo booth ‘Moltings,’ at NADA NY and the group exhibition WELL/BEING at University of Albany Museum, Straub will present works from the recent two years of her practice. The exhibition will include floor and wall sculptures fabricated from collected refuse and sourced materials, alongside works on collaged paper and canvas that directly correlate to her sculptures.
Straub’s evocative sculptures are bodily and performative. Each work is a character embodying a particular role that intermingles sexual play with the often-underreprepresented role of caregiving within that play. Toying with this possibly uncomfortable intersection, Straub challenges assumptions around power and empathy. She sidles up to the edges of taboo and tension, positioning care as the focal tenet through which to examine connection, sexuality and sexualization.
For Straub, the manifestation of each work is a form of molting: moving through discarded or shed personas that no longer serve her. Many of the objects themselves are from her past and bare signs of exhaustive use. Purging items that had been connected to her body and home, Straub transforms them into functional parts of a new whole. She physically persuades materials to behave at their limits- bound, hung, stretched and tied together in suspended action. For Straub, this behavior is linked to survival, being individually pushed to breaking points and sustained in tenuous balance.
Odessa Straub (b. 1989 Brooklyn, NY) graduated with a BFA from The Cooper Union (2013). Solo exhibitions include Odessa Straub with Jeffrey Stark, NADA (Miami, FL), Puss Palace Panic Room, Cooper Cole (Toronto, Canada), Migrating Contents, ALAC (Los Angeles, CA), Tennis Elbow, The Journal Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Real Puss Technologies, SEPTEMBER (Hudson, NY), Odessa Straub, NADA, (New York, NY), Tears in Housebreaking Letting the Gold, Acappella (Napoli, Italy), Necrotizing Woos, Jeffrey Stark (New York, NY), Seasonings on Precipice Perception, Mier Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). Two and three-person exhibitions include Jaywalkers: Eddie Martinez, Rafael Delacruz, and Odessa Straub, Loyal Gallery (Stockholm, Switzerland), Viewing Room: Agathe Snow and Odessa Straub, Marlborough Contemporary (Chelsea, NY). Group exhibitions include Well/Being, University at Albany Art Museum (Albany, NY), Earthly, College of St Rose (Albany, NY), American Women, curated by Marie Maertens, La Patinoire Royale (Brussels, Belgium), Untitled, As It Stands (Los Angeles, CA), Yellow, SEPTEMBER (Hudson, NY), Inflatable Dolls, Women’s History Museum at Springsteen Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Peanuts, Eighteen Gallery (Copenhagen, Denmark), NADA, Cooper Cole (Miami, FL), Simili Stone, organized by Jacques Vidal, LA KAJAE (Brooklyn, NY), night walk, Inman Gallery (Houston, TX), Summerfest, curated by Lauren Taschen, Max Hetzler (Berlin, Germany), Fresh Cuts, Eric Firestone (Hamptons, NY), Blue Jean Baby, SEPTEMBER (Hudson, NY), Perfect Present: Three Generations of Painting, Jeffrey Stark (New York, NY), Present Conditional, Mier, (Los Angeles, CA), That’s The Neighbor, Always Dressing These Boulders In The Yard, The Suzanne Geiss Company (New York, NY). Her zine, published by innen (Zürich, Switzerland, 2019), is carried by Printed Matter. Select recent press includes Artforum Critics’ Pick and The Brooklyn Rail Review. She was an artist-in-residence (2019-2021) at Art Cake (Brooklyn, NY). Odessa Straub lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Straub’s evocative sculptures are bodily and performative. Each work is a character embodying a particular role that intermingles sexual play with the often-underreprepresented role of caregiving within that play. Toying with this possibly uncomfortable intersection, Straub challenges assumptions around power and empathy. She sidles up to the edges of taboo and tension, positioning care as the focal tenet through which to examine connection, sexuality and sexualization.
For Straub, the manifestation of each work is a form of molting: moving through discarded or shed personas that no longer serve her. Many of the objects themselves are from her past and bare signs of exhaustive use. Purging items that had been connected to her body and home, Straub transforms them into functional parts of a new whole. She physically persuades materials to behave at their limits- bound, hung, stretched and tied together in suspended action. For Straub, this behavior is linked to survival, being individually pushed to breaking points and sustained in tenuous balance.
Odessa Straub (b. 1989 Brooklyn, NY) graduated with a BFA from The Cooper Union (2013). Solo exhibitions include Odessa Straub with Jeffrey Stark, NADA (Miami, FL), Puss Palace Panic Room, Cooper Cole (Toronto, Canada), Migrating Contents, ALAC (Los Angeles, CA), Tennis Elbow, The Journal Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Real Puss Technologies, SEPTEMBER (Hudson, NY), Odessa Straub, NADA, (New York, NY), Tears in Housebreaking Letting the Gold, Acappella (Napoli, Italy), Necrotizing Woos, Jeffrey Stark (New York, NY), Seasonings on Precipice Perception, Mier Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). Two and three-person exhibitions include Jaywalkers: Eddie Martinez, Rafael Delacruz, and Odessa Straub, Loyal Gallery (Stockholm, Switzerland), Viewing Room: Agathe Snow and Odessa Straub, Marlborough Contemporary (Chelsea, NY). Group exhibitions include Well/Being, University at Albany Art Museum (Albany, NY), Earthly, College of St Rose (Albany, NY), American Women, curated by Marie Maertens, La Patinoire Royale (Brussels, Belgium), Untitled, As It Stands (Los Angeles, CA), Yellow, SEPTEMBER (Hudson, NY), Inflatable Dolls, Women’s History Museum at Springsteen Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Peanuts, Eighteen Gallery (Copenhagen, Denmark), NADA, Cooper Cole (Miami, FL), Simili Stone, organized by Jacques Vidal, LA KAJAE (Brooklyn, NY), night walk, Inman Gallery (Houston, TX), Summerfest, curated by Lauren Taschen, Max Hetzler (Berlin, Germany), Fresh Cuts, Eric Firestone (Hamptons, NY), Blue Jean Baby, SEPTEMBER (Hudson, NY), Perfect Present: Three Generations of Painting, Jeffrey Stark (New York, NY), Present Conditional, Mier, (Los Angeles, CA), That’s The Neighbor, Always Dressing These Boulders In The Yard, The Suzanne Geiss Company (New York, NY). Her zine, published by innen (Zürich, Switzerland, 2019), is carried by Printed Matter. Select recent press includes Artforum Critics’ Pick and The Brooklyn Rail Review. She was an artist-in-residence (2019-2021) at Art Cake (Brooklyn, NY). Odessa Straub lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
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SEPTEMBER